As
you watch these rather dumpy grey geese grazing noisily on the
Endrick Marshes it’s hard to imagine that they have flown nearly
3000km to get here. The 200 birds that visit the National
Park are a small flock in comparison with the thousands that make
Islay and the west coast of Scotland their winter home. Together they
make up the entire Greenland population, all coming to Scotland to
escape the Arctic winter there.

These
white-fronts are some of the rarest geese to visit the UK. If you
look through binoculars you can tell them from other grey geese by
the white blaze behind their beaks – they look as if they have been
pecking in a flour bin. Their orangey beaks distinguish them from the
pink-billed white-fronts that winter in the south of England, and
which spend their summers in Siberia.